So just looking for some inspiration on a matter that happened in my game. My new, level 1 players were sent into a tomb to retrieve a spell scroll and fight a Ghast. It was a short, 2 session dungeon crawl and went really well, BUUUUUT..... after they cleared the tomb and looted the place, one of my players decided he really wanted to take his long rest in the empty, ancient Elven sarcophagus that had been in the room... despite knowing via another party member's Nat 20 investigation that it was likely the sarcophagus was opened from the inside.... and it definitely wasn't the Ghast.
Short backstory on the tomb, I have it that there were three tombs built to honor some very ancient warrior elves who sacrificed themselves to become liches(the good kind) in order to forever fight and protect against a huge evil jerkface trying to overtake the world. The evil jjerkface was supposed to be wounded and unaware of this plan, actually showed up right before the three elves were supposed to transform to liches, and destroyed two of the tombs. The elf in the middle tomb woke early as a lich and barely managed to escape. The evil jerkface set up traps for if any elves or the warrior lich came back, but it was abandoned for hundreds of years till a group of tomb robbers found it and stumbled into the trap. Thus, the skeletons and the Ghast were born.
Anyway, so the PC slept in the tomb that the lich transformed in, and I gave him a 10 hour tick from the madness list, but I feel like there may be an opportunity for something super cool to happen storywise.( this isn't the main story as of now, but is meant to be sprinkled in lightly, so if they want to continue with their characters after finishing the first campaign I can whip this baby out) Do any of you have suggestions? I was thinking something along the lines of after the tick wears off, he becomes fluent in ancient elvish(basically a super different dialect of elvish), but cant really control it. Anyway, suggestions welcome!
A suggestion I have is to maybe give him some of the Elven class bonuses, Or even just a small magical thing, like maybe he can use thamaturgy, or another cantrip.
Ancient Elvish is cool, but not as useful (depending on how you're doing the story) as maybe a bonus to move speed, or to one of his attributes.
Anyway, sounds like a neat Campaign! Hope this helps.
Something that could prove interesting is if you proceeded to award him specific spells related to the lich. For instance you can give him turn undead and then when they level up award a new spell. You can craft the story that as he gets stronger the effects of sleeping in the sarcophagus start to take hold awakening new abilities as they level up. You could even give them a weakness to balance out the spells by making them more and more weak to holy items and holy places. I hope this helps and I wish you luck.
Tell him he sees his hand rotting to a black husk, but let him use the hand to cast 5 spells/ a day but otherwise its useless for carrying and stuff like that.
Sounds like a cool story.. interesting take on liches since they’re typically malignant. I’m not thinking sleeping in a liches tomb should have benefits though even if it was a lich created to prevent evil. Maybe the liches created magical ties around their tombs as protection? I would imagine these ties to be invisible threads that can only be seen by “true sight”. If you trigger this thread (in this case by sleeping the the tomb) it sticks to you until you find a way to remove it. The thread could allow a lich to communicate with the PC and try to convince it to aid the lichs plans.
I think you missed an opportunity to use nothics too! Since, two of the liches tombs were destroyed they failed to become liches and thus could have become nothics (see monster manual) and attacked the party. Since you didn’t use them.. maybe they could hunt the PC who slept in the tomb, tracking the PC via the Magic tether. This could be the first hint that the PC is still connected to the tomb and provide some plot points (like now the party has to find someone with true sight).
Sounds like a cool story.. interesting take on liches since they’re typically malignant. I’m not thinking sleeping in a liches tomb should have benefits though even if it was a lich created to prevent evil. Maybe the liches created magical ties around their tombs as protection? I would imagine these ties to be invisible threads that can only be seen by “true sight”. If you trigger this thread (in this case by sleeping the the tomb) it sticks to you until you find a way to remove it. The thread could allow a lich to communicate with the PC and try to convince it to aid the lichs plans.
I think you missed an opportunity to use nothics too! Since, two of the liches tombs were destroyed they failed to become liches and thus could have become nothics (see monster manual) and attacked the party. Since you didn’t use them.. maybe they could hunt the PC who slept in the tomb, tracking the PC via the Magic tether. This could be the first hint that the PC is still connected to the tomb and provide some plot points (like now the party has to find someone with true sight).
Let us know what you decide!
Thanks for the suggestion! Honestly, I didn't even know about nothics in the first place! They sound epic though! My idea was that the other elves were just murdered properly before they could become liches, but nothics are pretty cool. Sadly, the player for this character just informed me that he may be resigning from the campaign due to scheduling issues, so this all may be a moot point. I still have a connection point through a character that pried a magical gem from the sarcophagus and held it in his unprotected hand, thus gaining the curse properties that no matter how he tries to get rid of it, it will always return to him. Still, it's a pity since I was really looking forward to this story hook. I may still use the nothics though to keep the event fresh in their minds.
I have to admit a good-aligned lich is not something I'm used to reading about. You have a good story hook and I think you can pretty easily solve most of your challenges with a single stroke. What if the temporary madness manifested in visions of events from the lich's past? Most importantly, one of the visions could be the location of the lich's phylactery. So now you have this good-aligned lich who would feel incredibly vulnerable because the secret to destroying it is now within this character. And what if the evil jerkface (as you say) also somehow realized that now this character knows the location of the phylactery and he wants to go after the character to torture or mind-control the information out of him?
You now have the opportunity to simultaneously:
Tie the madness into your story in a meaningful way - Maybe even after it passes, the character continues to have strange visions during his long rests?
Give the player some neat and unique knowledge that is super helpful to the plot and makes him special. What will he do with this newfound responsibility?
You have the drama of a good-aligned lich who doesn't necessarily want to kill the character but is extremely concerned about what the character knows.
You have the drama of the big bad who now has the character on his radar because the character has information he desperately wants.
You could run a whole story arc from this if you wanted to.
I have to admit a good-aligned lich is not something I'm used to reading about. You have a good story hook and I think you can pretty easily solve most of your challenges with a single stroke. What if the temporary madness manifested in visions of events from the lich's past? Most importantly, one of the visions could be the location of the lich's phylactery. So now you have this good-aligned lich who would feel incredibly vulnerable because the secret to destroying it is now within this character. And what if the evil jerkface (as you say) also somehow realized that now this character knows the location of the phylactery and he wants to go after the character to torture or mind-control the information out of him?
You now have the opportunity to simultaneously:
Tie the madness into your story in a meaningful way - Maybe even after it passes, the character continues to have strange visions during his long rests?
Give the player some neat and unique knowledge that is super helpful to the plot and makes him special. What will he do with this newfound responsibility?
You have the drama of a good-aligned lich who doesn't necessarily want to kill the character but is extremely concerned about what the character knows.
You have the drama of the big bad who now has the character on his radar because the character has information he desperately wants.
You could run a whole story arc from this if you wanted to.
Really good stuff here! I like the idea of visions from the past, so if this character really does stop playing, I might shift this over to the player with the cursed red gem. Thanks!
Short backstory on the tomb, I have it that there were three tombs built to honor some very ancient warrior elves who sacrificed themselves to become liches(the good kind)
Firstly, how can a lich be good? Is this homebrew or did miss something?
But, set aside, the character should NOT be allowed to be a lich at level 1. Ancient elvish sounds cool but wouldn’t that be rewarding a character for doing something stupid? Maybe the descendants of the lich will be angry at the character. Or, as punishment for sleeping in an lich’s coffin, they should become an elf? But transforming a good character into an elf just feels like ruining a character, especially in a level 1 party. Maybe they wake up upon realising they are being transformed into an elf and stop the transformation just in time? If they want to get a long rest, they must be transformed into one of D&D’s worst races. If they don’t want to be an elf, they can’t long rest. This gives the character a decision to make. Or, to match the good lich theme, they could have their alignment reversed. (Like the deck of many things balance card)
So I'd have the PC lay down in the sarcophagus. Then they're plagued by admonishment from the Necromancer Squidboy84 almost three years in the future professing no good can come from such a rest. After the rest of the party is rested, the PC has levels of exhaustion and meta knowledge that someone had such a strong reaction to the scenario the PC finds themself in they were compelled to post to advise against decisions and courses of actions clearly decided years ago. Squidboy84, time traveling necromancer of the so-called "good kind" of Necromancer but truthfully more invested in notions of game integrity than a pragmatic grasp of time and space, can be the game's new BBEG. I mean if they've been playing for three years, they might need a new one and nothing beats a table saying "huh? who?" when the BBEG is revealed as someone who's on to them because of something the did three years ago, and who's arrived to correct the error of their ways.
Hey guys!
So just looking for some inspiration on a matter that happened in my game. My new, level 1 players were sent into a tomb to retrieve a spell scroll and fight a Ghast. It was a short, 2 session dungeon crawl and went really well, BUUUUUT..... after they cleared the tomb and looted the place, one of my players decided he really wanted to take his long rest in the empty, ancient Elven sarcophagus that had been in the room... despite knowing via another party member's Nat 20 investigation that it was likely the sarcophagus was opened from the inside.... and it definitely wasn't the Ghast.
Short backstory on the tomb, I have it that there were three tombs built to honor some very ancient warrior elves who sacrificed themselves to become liches(the good kind) in order to forever fight and protect against a huge evil jerkface trying to overtake the world. The evil jjerkface was supposed to be wounded and unaware of this plan, actually showed up right before the three elves were supposed to transform to liches, and destroyed two of the tombs. The elf in the middle tomb woke early as a lich and barely managed to escape. The evil jerkface set up traps for if any elves or the warrior lich came back, but it was abandoned for hundreds of years till a group of tomb robbers found it and stumbled into the trap. Thus, the skeletons and the Ghast were born.
Anyway, so the PC slept in the tomb that the lich transformed in, and I gave him a 10 hour tick from the madness list, but I feel like there may be an opportunity for something super cool to happen storywise.( this isn't the main story as of now, but is meant to be sprinkled in lightly, so if they want to continue with their characters after finishing the first campaign I can whip this baby out) Do any of you have suggestions? I was thinking something along the lines of after the tick wears off, he becomes fluent in ancient elvish(basically a super different dialect of elvish), but cant really control it. Anyway, suggestions welcome!
-thechimericalcookie
A suggestion I have is to maybe give him some of the Elven class bonuses, Or even just a small magical thing, like maybe he can use thamaturgy, or another cantrip.
Ancient Elvish is cool, but not as useful (depending on how you're doing the story) as maybe a bonus to move speed, or to one of his attributes.
Anyway, sounds like a neat Campaign! Hope this helps.
Something that could prove interesting is if you proceeded to award him specific spells related to the lich. For instance you can give him turn undead and then when they level up award a new spell. You can craft the story that as he gets stronger the effects of sleeping in the sarcophagus start to take hold awakening new abilities as they level up. You could even give them a weakness to balance out the spells by making them more and more weak to holy items and holy places. I hope this helps and I wish you luck.
Tell him he sees his hand rotting to a black husk, but let him use the hand to cast 5 spells/ a day but otherwise its useless for carrying and stuff like that.
Sounds like a cool story.. interesting take on liches since they’re typically malignant. I’m not thinking sleeping in a liches tomb should have benefits though even if it was a lich created to prevent evil. Maybe the liches created magical ties around their tombs as protection? I would imagine these ties to be invisible threads that can only be seen by “true sight”. If you trigger this thread (in this case by sleeping the the tomb) it sticks to you until you find a way to remove it. The thread could allow a lich to communicate with the PC and try to convince it to aid the lichs plans.
I think you missed an opportunity to use nothics too! Since, two of the liches tombs were destroyed they failed to become liches and thus could have become nothics (see monster manual) and attacked the party. Since you didn’t use them.. maybe they could hunt the PC who slept in the tomb, tracking the PC via the Magic tether. This could be the first hint that the PC is still connected to the tomb and provide some plot points (like now the party has to find someone with true sight).
Let us know what you decide!
Thanks for the suggestion! Honestly, I didn't even know about nothics in the first place! They sound epic though! My idea was that the other elves were just murdered properly before they could become liches, but nothics are pretty cool. Sadly, the player for this character just informed me that he may be resigning from the campaign due to scheduling issues, so this all may be a moot point. I still have a connection point through a character that pried a magical gem from the sarcophagus and held it in his unprotected hand, thus gaining the curse properties that no matter how he tries to get rid of it, it will always return to him. Still, it's a pity since I was really looking forward to this story hook. I may still use the nothics though to keep the event fresh in their minds.
Aw man, that’s a shame. Def throw the nothics at the party though.. they’ll be terrified!
Possessed by the lich? Because you broke the spells warding the casket, it died, and it tried to reform while the player was inside?
I have to admit a good-aligned lich is not something I'm used to reading about. You have a good story hook and I think you can pretty easily solve most of your challenges with a single stroke. What if the temporary madness manifested in visions of events from the lich's past? Most importantly, one of the visions could be the location of the lich's phylactery. So now you have this good-aligned lich who would feel incredibly vulnerable because the secret to destroying it is now within this character. And what if the evil jerkface (as you say) also somehow realized that now this character knows the location of the phylactery and he wants to go after the character to torture or mind-control the information out of him?
You now have the opportunity to simultaneously:
You could run a whole story arc from this if you wanted to.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Really good stuff here! I like the idea of visions from the past, so if this character really does stop playing, I might shift this over to the player with the cursed red gem. Thanks!
Firstly, how can a lich be good? Is this homebrew or did miss something?
But, set aside, the character should NOT be allowed to be a lich at level 1. Ancient elvish sounds cool but wouldn’t that be rewarding a character for doing something stupid? Maybe the descendants of the lich will be angry at the character. Or, as punishment for sleeping in an lich’s coffin, they should become an elf? But transforming a good character into an elf just feels like ruining a character, especially in a level 1 party. Maybe they wake up upon realising they are being transformed into an elf and stop the transformation just in time? If they want to get a long rest, they must be transformed into one of D&D’s worst races. If they don’t want to be an elf, they can’t long rest. This gives the character a decision to make. Or, to match the good lich theme, they could have their alignment reversed. (Like the deck of many things balance card)
So I'd have the PC lay down in the sarcophagus. Then they're plagued by admonishment from the Necromancer Squidboy84 almost three years in the future professing no good can come from such a rest. After the rest of the party is rested, the PC has levels of exhaustion and meta knowledge that someone had such a strong reaction to the scenario the PC finds themself in they were compelled to post to advise against decisions and courses of actions clearly decided years ago. Squidboy84, time traveling necromancer of the so-called "good kind" of Necromancer but truthfully more invested in notions of game integrity than a pragmatic grasp of time and space, can be the game's new BBEG. I mean if they've been playing for three years, they might need a new one and nothing beats a table saying "huh? who?" when the BBEG is revealed as someone who's on to them because of something the did three years ago, and who's arrived to correct the error of their ways.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.